"Cave in the woods?" Pandemic says, springing up from behind a trunk that seems to be rapidly withering from her very presence on it. "The woods are pretty dangerous here. At least for humans. It's where my kind sits, and broods, and SEETHES, and PLANS, and PLOTS. Plotting. Always plotting."

She rubs her hands together, grinning like an idiot, before returning to normal. "Yeah, the forests on this continent are pretty saturated with magic from the first armageddon, sooooooooo it's where a lot of tainted elementals like to hang out."

"The first armageddon, you say. How many have there been, exactly?" Kelne didn't seem overly bothered by the prospect of tainted elementals brooding at him. He subscribed to the theory that if somebody bothered him, he'd bother them.

Idran chuckles humorlessly, looking off deep into the forest. "It's something of a long story. But the short version; do you remember the chaos relics back on Gaera? They came from here. From a massive asteroid in this planet's solar system, to be exact. It was easily a mile or two wide, maybe even more, and those relics were just small pieces of it. Now, a boulder-sized fragment of that asteroid broke off and crashed on this continent centuries ago, and I think you can imagine the effect that could have. It wiped out nearly all life on this continent. And while Pandemic's right, it just about had two when that entire asteroid nearly crashed. That's what we were here to stop three years ago."

"Wonderful," Kelne remarked cynically, "I suppose that explains why Synergy set up shop here. If they're trying to get use out of the undead, no doubt they're doing the same with other unusual creatures."